The history of the AIZ began with a famine in the Soviet Union and Lenin's appeal of August 2, 1921 to the working class for assistance. As a support organization for this campaign, International Workers' Aid (IAH) was formed, led by William (Willi) Münzenberg. In the autumn of 1921 a monthly German magazine was created, Sowjet Russland im Bild (Soviet Russia in Pictures), with reports about the recently created Russian Soviet state, its achievements and problems, and about the IAH. In 1922 the first reports on the German proletariat appeared in its pages. At this time the monthly circulated about 10,000 copies.

On November 30, 1924, the renamed AIZ appeared with a new format and a biweekly schedule. It became the most widely-read socialist pictorial newspaper in Germany. The magazine covered current events and published fiction and poetry, with such contributors as Anna Seghers, Erich Kästner and Kurt Tucholsky. Münzenberg wanted the AIZ to connect the Communist Party of Germany to a broad educated readership. In November 1926 AIZ began publishing on a weekly schedule. According to a survey AIZ conducted in 1929, "42 percent of its readers were skilled workers, 33 percent unskilled workers, 10 percent white-collar workers, 5 percent youths, 3.5 percent housewives, 3 percent self-employed, 2 percent independent, and 1 percent civil servants."[1]

The photojournalism, often striking, was predominantly worker photography ("Arbeiterphotographen"), submitted by amateur photographers. Beginning in Hamburg in 1926, Münzenberg established what eventually became a network of Worker Photographer groups across Germany and the Soviet Union.[2] In 1930 began the magazine's association with John Heartfield, whose photomontages savagely attacking both National Socialism and Weimarcapitalism became a regular feature.

At its peak the circulation of AIZ reached over one half million. The last issue published in Berlin was dated March 5, 1933; after the seizure of power by Hitler the AIZ went into exile in Prague.[3] In Prague, AIZ's circulation fell to 12,000, and attempts to smuggle the magazine into Germany failed.[3] Continuing under editor-in-chief Franz Carl Weiskopf, the magazine was renamed Volks Illlustriete in 1936. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the publication was moved to Paris, where a single, final issue was published in 1938.[3]

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